Global Goals That Work
Over the last decade, there has been a proliferation of sustainability indexes and frameworks. This report attempts to bring greater alignment between actors and better ways to measure progress using our planet's health and people's well-being as the yardstick, rather than Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or profit alone. Read the report to learn how sustainability is measured at government, business, and societal levels, and how it can be aligned to the triple bottom line (people, planet, profit) and the SDGs.
In Short
The Task
Making the SDGs relevant to policy makers (north and south), businesses, or local authorities requires tackling three barriers:
To harmonize: The proliferation of sustainability measurement systems in recent years should be applauded – more people are gathering environmental, social, and governance data than ever before. But the result is a multitude of disconnected datasets that do not necessarily fill major knowledge gaps or help decision makers make better choices. For example, despite the global agreement to tackle climate change, there is no agreed way of measuring a nation's adaptive capacity. While there are over 34 indicator sets tracking the decline in biodiversity, they do not alert businesses as to which activities or sectors prove the most damaging, and in which locations. While data shows that more children are attending school than ever before, there are still few consistent ways to compare the results of learning assessments across different countries.
To connect: The linkages between data suppliers and data users in most instances are tenuous at best. For example, data being produced by statistical offices is not being taken up at the national policy level. Valuable data generated by communities is not is not being fed into national surveys. Information generated by corporations for regulatory or reporting mechanisms is not being made public.
To support: The poorest people with the hardest problems are the least well served by current data metrics. Identifying data inequalities and building the capacity of under-represented communities and issues is critical for a universal response.